LUCAS, ANTONY JOHN JEREOS (1862-1946), Greek community leader, philanthropist and restaurateur, was born Antonios Ioannis Gerasimos Lekatsas on 18 October 1862 at Exoghi, Ithaca, Greece, second child of Ioannis Lekatsas, priest, and his wife Magdalene, née Palmos. At 17 Lucas left the poverty of the island to work in Patras, later served in the Greek army for two years and returned to Exoghi where he met an uncle who had gone to the Australian goldfields and returned with glowing accounts. Lucas sailed with two cousins, arriving in Melbourne in 1886.

On 28 February 1893 Lucas married Margaret Wilson (d.1942), head of the fur department of Foy & Gibson. A thrifty, shrewd businesswoman, she and Lucas opened the Town Hall Café in Swanston Street, Melbourne, in 1894. It occupied two floors, accommodated 650 diners and employed a mostly Greek workforce of 70. The family lived on the top floor, later moving ...

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Source:

Australian Dictionary of Biography